March 17 is celebrated as St. Patrick's Day, the feast day of the priest who converted Ireland to Christianity. The feast day of a saint is often on the date of that person's death, particularly those dating back before birth dates of non-famous babies were well documented. Patrick died on March 17, 461. But March 17 is also the death date and feast day of a lesser-known saint of the seventh century, Gertrude of Nivelles.
Gertrude was born around the year 628 in the Kingdom of Austrasia. Having a prominent family, she was considered to be a good marriage match for various royalty, but Gertrude refused all offers. After her father died, her mother Itta of Metz founded an abbey so that Gertrude could live under protection from an arranged marriage. Gertrude took over the administration of the Abbey of Nivelles in what is now Belgium after her mother's death.
Gertrude died at the age of 33 the day after receiving a premonition from an Irish priest that she would die on St. Patrick's Day. And she did, in the year 659. St. Gertrude is the patron saint of several places in the region of the abbey, and the patron saint of travelers. She is also known as the patron saint of gardeners, as she was an avid gardener and was particularly successful in protecting the abbey's gardens from rats and mice. Gertrude's talent in that area led her to become known as the patron saint of cats in the modern era, starting around 1980 and propagated by the internet. -via She Who Seeks
An extremely worrisome bacteria has infected over 50 Americans across 13 states to the point that the government started investigating the issue's source. While illnesses can be easily cured, what got their attention is the fact that these affected patients turned blind.
Some of them can sense light but see nothing else. According to government officials, one died and at least five suffered permanent vision loss. Upon their investigation, they found that all these patients used tainted eyedrops. Each of them got infections in different parts of their body, such as blood, and lungs.
This case had doctors and experts concerned about the nature of this bacterial infection and how it evolved so far to the point that antibiotics can no longer counter it. “This really shows us that it’s not something theoretical and in the future. It’s here,” said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
Learn more about the case here.
Image credit: Towfiqu barbhuiya
There’s a certain market for these devices, even in the era where smartphones are all we need for streaming different kinds of music.
Having a digital audio player is for the audiophiles, collectors, hardware lovers, as well as those who want to listen without being distracted by other platforms, such as TikTok and various forms of social media.
Aside from its appeal for nostalgia and its specific design, MP3 players also provide good sound quality. If you pair it with a great pair of noise-canceling earphones, then your work or study session would be in full swing. Esquire’s Jason Murdock compiles a list of the best MP3 players in the market today. Check them out here!
Image via Esquire
If you have the extra cash to get on a journey for a year, would you ever want to live on a cruise ship? Well, for those interested in such a lavish and interesting lifestyle, Life at Sea Cruises might just be for you!
The company is currently planning to operate a three-year cruise around the world. Prices start at $30,000 per person, which includes a one-year stay on a 130-square-foot interior stateroom on the ship. Those interested in staying for the whole three years of the journey will have to pay $90,000 per head.
Travelers will be onboard MV Gemini, a 30-year-old cruise ship. The vessel will start its journey in Istanbul on November 1, and slowly pick up guests along the way. The ship can accommodate up to 1,074 travelers with its 400 cabins. The company states that the cruise will have travelers reach all seven continents. They can also visit several popular destinations such as Half Moon Island, Antarctica; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Seoul, South Korea.
Image credit: Life at Sea Cruises
Dustin Ballard, known on the Internet as There I Ruined It (previously at Neatorama), occasionally comes up with something sublime and improved instead of ruined. He scraped the word "Yeah" out of a bunch of different songs you will recognized and strung them together in a really catchy tune. I saw this elsewhere a few days ago, but it was not in an embeddable format. Now it's hit YouTube, and there's a bonus song! He also collected a bunch of "No" clips (or "Nein" in the case of Rammstein) and made another song, although that's more of a comedy than a symphony. I think you will like it. -via reddit
Gustav Hogan became enthralled with Star Wars as a 6-year-old kid in the Netherlands watching Return of the Jedi. His fascination with the production of Star Wars movies stayed with him and inspired his life's work. Hogan grew up to excel in animatronics, and as creative director at Biomimic Studio in London, he has spent 30 years designing and giving life to Star Wars characters like Admiral Ackbar, Maz Kanata, the Crystal Foxes, and Babu Frik. Hogan has a long portfolio of creatures for other movies, too, from cute animated animals to horrific monsters. In this video from Great Big Story, you can see the enthusiasm and perfectionism he puts into his work. -via Laughing Squid
It's Peeps season! And in addition to jousting, making dioramas, and even possibly eating them, you can now pay homage to ancient art with them. Art collective MSCHF is offering Peeps in the shape of the Paleolithic sculpture the Venus of Willendorf.
These Peeps come in yellow, purple, and pink, and while they aren't quite as detailed as the original, they are completely edible. Or, as edible as regular Peeps, anyway. But who would want to even think about consuming a work of art?
You can buy a 4-pack of each color, 12 peeps in all, for $75. -via Everlasting Blort
A total of 3,888 identified casualties are buried in the British Commonwealth’s Ramleh War Cemetery. But one grave attracts a disproportionate share of visitors. It belongs to Private Harry Potter, number 5251351 in the Worcestershire Regiment. pic.twitter.com/NLcYk9Vqgj
— Atlas Obscura (@atlasobscura) August 6, 2018
I've read only the first novel in J.K. Rowling's generation-defining story, but I take it that Harry dies at the end. Otherwise, why would this grave exist?
A better interpretation is that a real person also named Harry Potter died. The Commonwealth military cemetery at Ramlah, Israel contains 3,888 interments, including Private Harry Potter. This Harry Potter joined the British Army at the age of 16 according to the official webpage of the Worcester Regiment, in which Potter served. He was deployed to British Palestine, where he drove trucks and earned the nickname "Crash Harry." In 1939, Arab guerillas ambushed a convoy that Potter was in. He was killed in action and buried nearby.
Private Potter's grave has become a tourist attraction since news reports about his grave in 2010. But he's actually one of at least thirteen Harry Potters buried in located war graves around the world.
-via Amusing Planet
It's true, Ze Frank published his Animal Awards in December, leaving us to think that it would be an annual end of the year event. But since then, he's come up with more categories. Why wait when you have the facts? In this video, he shows us the champions of the Best Worst Jumping, Best Animal Call, Nature Photographer I Want to Party With, Most Unforgettable Sage Grouse, Fun Fashion on a Budget, Most Likely to Have Splashback in the Urinal, and Most Creative Home Security System. I suspect that this came about because he had some great facts about these critters, but not enough material for each species to make a five- to ten-minute True Facts video about each one. That's fine with me, because these are quite funny. Warning: there's a lot of poop in the Fun Fashion on a Budget category. There's also a one-minute ad at the four minute mark.
Mount Athos, a hilly peninsula in Greece, is famous for its 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and its prohibition against women. No human women are allowed in the territory, nor are female domestic animals- with the exception of cats, because their utility as mousers vastly outranks the value of dairy cows and egg-laying chickens. Or maybe the monks were unwilling to give up the pleasure of playing with kittens.
In 1938, the story came out that one man had lived in one of the monasteries since infancy, and had never left Mount Athos during his life, which ended in 1938. This puts Mihailo Tolotos in the position of being the the only man in history who lived a full life without ever seeing a woman. Newspaper accounts also said that Tolotos had also never seen a car, a plane, or a movie. Since he died in 1938, it is very possible that he never even saw a photograph of a woman ...if the story is true in the first place. Read what we known about Mihailo Tolotos at Rare Historical Photos. Which is odd in itself, because Tolotos was never identified in a photograph, and we do not know which monastery he belonged to. Still, there are pictures. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: World Public Forum Dialogue of Civilizations)
I was all set for this to be an over-the-top trailer for a fake movie, along the lines of Cocaine Shark or Attack of the Giant Bubbles. There are two things you need to know before watching this trailer: 1. it's extremely gory and bloody, which fulfills the over-the-top part, but 2. Ninja vs. Shark is a real movie. The actors are well-known in Japan, and IMDb has a plot summary.
In the Edo period, at the remote village of Okitsu, the evil cult leader Koushirou uses ninjutsu to ensorcel sharks and forces them to attack local pearl divers so the cult can steal the pearls from their mangled corpses. Desperate for help, the village chief hires Kotaro Shiozaki, a guard at a nearby temple, but Kotaro soon finds his path blocked by lady ninja Kikuma, and a gigantic shark that doesn't seem like something from this world.
Besides ninjas and sharks, the movie has zombies and/or vampires. And tons of CGI blood. Ninja vs. Shark will open on April 14th in Japan. No release date has been set for the US. You'll learn more at the film's official site, if you can read Japanese. -via Geeks Are Sexy
When acclaimed playwright Tennessee Williams died on February 25, 1983, the medical examiner couldn't determine the cause of death immediately. It was later discovered that he had died from a bad reaction to Seconal, which he took as a sleep aid. But the publicity surrounding his death was important. Williams' assistant insisted that a cause of death be published or else speculation would lead to false rumors and who knows what that would lead to? So the medical examiner agreed to state that Williams had choked on a bottle cap. And that's what many of his fans believe to this day.
That's just one of 13 stories of strange deaths among authors. Others are truly bizarre, like the falling turtle, although the further back you go, the less likely it is that we have all the facts. Some had plausible causes of death that were nonetheless brought about by bizarre circumstances. Read all 13 stories of weird deaths among authors at Mental Floss.
In the modern era, bars are where people often go specifically to meet people of the opposite sex. Once upon a time, it was anything but that. Pubs and saloons were thought of as places where men went to get away from their wives, and women who went in could be risking their reputations. Many bars completely barred women from entering! Others restricted women from entering without an escort, who was expected to order for her while she stayed in her place. Some pubs saw that business is business, and went out of their way to make it possible for ladies to discreetly come in for a drink.
One way they did this was with ladies entrances, which were hidden in an alley or otherwise shielded from crowds on the street. Another was to offer "snugs," or private rooms. Men-only drinking establishments, and misogynistic restrictions on women in bars, only died out during the second-wave feminism of the 1960s and '70s. Read about the way bars once were, and how that revolution came about at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Gerry Dincher)
If you want to add a subversive touch to your home that will get people talking, the bathroom is the place to do it, because it's small, private, and a great place for a laugh. You can get away with odd colors or a style that would cause objection in the family if it were anywhere else. If you don't have a cabinet over your toilet, it's the perfect place for artwork or a sign that you wouldn't put anywhere else. Everyone who goes in there will see it.
(Image credit: Aust1nL33)
It doesn't have to be fancy; it can even be homemade as long as it's clever and something you wouldn't see in anyone else's home. The framed review above was found in an Airbnb. The word "ply" had to explained to quite a few commenters.
There are more bathroom signs, but the actual list at Bored Panda covers 50 clever and funny home decorating hacks that include all rooms, holiday decorations, artworks, and pranks that will make you laugh. Don't miss the duck and the Christmas angles.
Jake Carlini is an inventor attuned with the needs of the modern world. When 21st Century challenges emerge, he develops practical solutions for them.
In the past, he's made a reliable snorkel apparatus that allows him to run a mile underwater, a functional sword out of gym socks, and a jet-powered longboard. These are necessary technologies for modern life, but we can and shall, thanks to Carlini, achieve even greater heights.
Carlini has, through painstaking labor and experimentation, made functional roller skates out of four tiny bicycles. They're skatecycles and they're amazing. In this video, we see how he ushered in a new dawn of transportation.
-via The Awesomer
